So, we've been getting polluted by the government agency responsible for ending pollution? How much is THEIR fine?

.
And who knows more about dumping sewage on us than our own government?

There's something... well... almost poetic about all of this. Local taxpayers have been getting screwed for the clean up of Burnt Bridge Creek to the tune of millions... and the main agency, the local Department of Ecology and the local Corps of Engineers as well as Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife...

... has been the largest polluter in the creek.

Aside from the issue of the pollution (In this case, raw human sewage) dumped into the water for years... (You mean to tell me that NO ONE noticed that the sewage bills for this facility must have been VERY low... like, nonexistent?) questions abound.

We have spent millions to clean this creek up while those in charge have been polluting it.

Do we get refunds?

How much do THEY get fined? You know, like any one of us would if it had been a non-governmental entity?

Who gets held responsible for this?

The cynic in me answers these questions thus:

1. No. We're screwed.

2. Nothing. The Government can break the law with impunity.

3. No one. Who was held responsible, for example, for the waste of $60 million in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge debacle that resulted in the abandonment of a developed construction site because it turned out to be a tribal burial ground?

One of the things that infuriates people actually paying attention is the double standard.

While we have been getting screwed for years on this deal, the overwhelming likelihood is that no one will be held accountable, and that money... a LOT of money... was just wasted.

Swell.

Sewer line repair will take another day
Faulty hookup sent sewage into Burnt Bridge Creek

Monday, April 13 10:55 p.m.

BY ERIK ROBINSON
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

City of Vancouver public works employees, Jacinto Gazcon, from left, Mark Eccleston and Doug Swartz work on a utility line at the intersection of 20th Street and Grand Boulevard on Monday. (Troy Wayrynen/The Columbian)

City workers on Monday tore up a small street off Grand Boulevard, but it will take at least one more day of work to restore sewer service to a state office building.

Workers conducting a comprehensive survey of the city's underground stormwater piping system last week made the startling discovery that a sewer line had been incorrectly connected near the building at 2108 Grand Blvd. The situation meant that raw sewage had been allowed to flow for years into Burnt Bridge Creek.

Ironically, the building is the regional headquarters for almost 100 environmental regulators with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Ecology and the Army Corps of Engineers. The state leases the building from Honolulu-based Watumull Properties, which has owned it for less than a year.

City workers are repairing the faulty connection at the building owner's expense.

Workers tore up 20th Street near Grand Boulevard on Monday, but a city spokeswoman said workers will return to the site today. They intend to deploy a probe mounted with a camera to check the lateral sewer line running out of the building.

"We want to make sure everything's 100 percent correct," said Loretta Callahan, a city spokeswoman.

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